


Nothing Wrong

by saigne



Category: Borderlands
Genre: Blood, Dark!Rhys, M/M, Manipulation, also Jack is realizing this fact and likes this fact a lot, because I'm pretty sure that that actually isn't a thing yet, idk but Rhys likes killing and this is him finding that out, or something, the others are there but I don't wanna clog their tags
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-21
Updated: 2016-05-21
Packaged: 2018-06-09 19:14:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,962
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6919687
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/saigne/pseuds/saigne
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Traveling on Pandora is a pain in the ass and considering the amount of times they've been attacked, it's only a matter of time before Rhys has  to get his hands dirty. </p>
<p>Or, when you finally has to strangle a man to death and your conscience is a supportive asshole about your bad life choices.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Nothing Wrong

**Author's Note:**

> I've only worked at this at ungodly hours and it unfortunately hasn't been beta'd so here's the disclaimer but yeah. This has been written because of the severe lack of Rhy just being as awful as I (and my friend) know he could be. 
> 
> Also it's set during the time it takes them to get to Gortys' first upgrade, before they actually get to the greenhouse o' shrooms. 
> 
> Also2xCombo this is functioning with the a headcanon I have that Rhys' arm is actually really really strong given it's a pretty advanced prosthetic and like, it has safeties to keep his strength in check so he doesn't hulk smash everything when he just wants to close a drawer or some shit.

The one thing that people fail to mention, up on Helios, is just how often people on Pandora try to kill you. Sure, between backstabbing and corporate ladder climbing the violence that takes place on the surface of the planet gets mentioned, but not enough. Defenitly not enough, Rhys decides, the caravan getting surrounded by bandits. Again. For the second time today.  
  
By the time he realizes that they're surrounded, Sasha is already shooting at them through a newly broken window and Athena's grabbing the nearest gun because there's only so much you can do with a shield in a moving vehicle, even if it is slowing down. Vaughn is doing his best not to get shot under the table with Gortys, having run down from the roof and Rhys can hear Loader Bot shooting at bandits from the roof. He's also pretty sure Loader Bot just apologized to one.  
  
Everything is going fine, or as fine as it can be when they're being shot at, until the caravan lurches and Fiona is screaming at them to hold, struggling to keep the it from flipping because it's just their luck that the damn thing would actually flip over. A second later and the caravan is stopped, thankfully still upright even though from Fiona's cursing it's apparent both of the left wheels were blown by a surprisingly accurate shots.  
  
Rhys looks around, trying to shake off an impending headache after he hit it on something, and realizes that the sounds of the engines outside are getting closer and then a second later stopping in front of them. Crap.  
  
He carefully picks himself up from the corner of the room he got thrown, taking a hint (glare) from Athena and taking out the stun baton, holding it in front of him like a sword and shrugging nervously at Vaughn, who gestures to Gortys who thankfully hasn't made much noise aside from groaning or yelping.  
  
Fiona is already on her feet, moving away from the front of the car and to the side door, behind Athena who has her hand on the door handle and is waiting for something. Rhys stands behind the two of them, next to Sasha, who glances at him with a smirk.  
  
"Think you can handle these bandits better than the last one you tried to take on?"  
  
Rhys frowns and faces Sasha, pointing the stun baton at her, dangerously close. "Of course I can handle a few bandits. That last guy just had a freakishly strong neck," he replied, facing forward again. "In fact, you should try to keep up."  
  
Sasha snorts a laugh and frowns as Athena opens the door, shield already thankfully out because the moment it opens the gunfire starts and Rhys does not scream in any way shape or form. Maybe a yelp, ignoring the scoff he's pretty sure he heard come from Fiona. Or Athena. Probably Athena actually. Jerk.  
  
Athena bounds out once the shooting stops, because apparently bandits are too dumb to not all reload at the same time. And the shield probably helps reflect the few stray bullets flying her way so she can afford to do that, at least from what Rhys can hear.  
  
Loader Bot takes this moment to jump off the roof, landing hard enough to shake the vehicle and Sasha runs out, using him as cover to shoot at the bandits, cheering when she takes down two that are too busy watching another idiot get taken down by Athena's shield.  
  
Fiona guards the door beside Rhys, hitting a bandit in the side of the head with the skillet that generally hangs above the sink, frowning once he goes down and looking for the next one stupid enough to approach her. Seconds later there are three coming closer, and while she takes one out another yanks her out of the doorway and they go down in a mess of limbs.  
  
Rhys panics, stepping out and momentarily forgetting about the stun baton, freezing when a gun is pointed at him. The bandit on the ground yelps in pain and distracts both of them. Gus looks down to see Fiona with an arm on his windpipe and he uses this chance to jab the baton into the standing bandits chest, sending him flying.  
  
"Stay- grh- down you asshole," Fiona yells at the bandit slowly suffocating below her.  
  
Rhys looks down in surprise, impressed because Fiona's training with Athena seemed to be paying off. "Yeah I think he's done for now."  
  
"Serves him right- shit!" Fiona is looking behind Rhys with wide eyes, and he turns to see what she's staring at.  
  
Most of the bandits where down, Loader Bot and Sasha shooting down the last ones, but behind them was another three cars and what the hell is going on.  
  
Rhys isn't sure on what to do, glancing over at Fiona running over to Sasha to check on her and then back to the bandits that were fast approaching. He glares, wondering if the woman from earlier sent them. Mallory maybe. Valerie. Something like that.  
  
The second attack goes quicker since they're already outside and have cover, Rhys not having to do much past sending one or two bandits flying back. It's not until he literally can't see any of the others that he realizes he's been moving out of view. It's just his luck that at this moment a bandit chooses attack him, and he's distracted that he misses in swinging the baton, only knocking the gun away from the bandit.  
  
"Hey that gun was EXPENSIVE," the bandit yells, following it with his eyes before turning back and Rhys can only assume he's glaring, but as assumptions go it's a pretty safe one.  
  
"Oh, I'm sorry I knocked away the weapon you were shooting at me with!" Rhys raises the baton again, but this time the bandit is ready for it and knocks Rhys' arm away.  
  
The impact is enough to make Rhys drop the baton, the weapon rolling away from both of them. He turns just in time for the bandit punch him in the face. Rhys starts to fall, and through the haze and the pain he realizes this is the second time his head was hit so probably-  
  
"Holy crapcakes, has it even been a day yet or are you guys trying to set a record?"  
  
Whoop there it is.  
  
"I mean sure I'm always up for a little bandit killing, but seriously, pumpkin, this is just-"  
  
"Shut up, Jack," Rhys grits out, opening his eyes once he realizes he's never hit the ground. The bandit is holding onto his collar, other arm drawn back into a fist. He's paused and his head is tilted in what can only be described as a very murderous and dangerous but confused dog.  
  
"I didn't say anything," he starts, pausing when Rhys tries to kick him in the dick and looking down at the ineffective attack. "Dude, these pants are pretty padded."  
  
"Oh," Rhys says, glaring at the ex-CEO of Hyperion laughing himself to death beside them. Well, laughing himself second death.  
  
"Hey dum dum, use your arm to punch him in the face," Jack says in between laughs, "even a shittastic model like that could crush metal."  
  
Rhys is struggling to keep the bandit from punching, using all his strength to stop him. Thanks to what Jack said, Rhys remembers about the safety on his prosthetics and tries to use his echo-eye to turn them off.  
  
The moment the safeties come off he notices, the bandits fist which he was currently holding back in that hand getting crushed with ease. The bandit screams and let's go of Rhys, who's staring at his arm in shock. Rhys looks back from the prosthetic to the bandit's mess of a hand, blood dripping from the mangled appendage.  
  
Jack whistles lowly, looking interested now. "Hey, Rhys, try punching him once you get over your shock there."  
  
"Don't tell me what to do," Rhys snaps, highly freaked out at the prospect that he just crushed a mans hand like paper, but moving forward either way. He gets in a pose that he hopes is intimidating and swings his fist at the bandit, hitting him in the chest and hearing a dull crunch and there go some ribs. Rhys winces and the bandit goes down and god this part is really going to suck.  
  
He looks over the fallen bandit, not happy on the prospect of actually having to kill someone. Well, kill someone directly, not just shooting at them from a screen via robotic proxy. Rhys gets down, the bandit groaning and putting his arms up, one of which Rhys slaps away with the prosthetic and he's pretty sure he heard another snap and why the fuck is this thing so strong.  
  
Rhys' straddling the bandit now, hands on his throat and squeezing. He's careful to make sure his flesh hand is out of the way of his robotic one, not wanting to ruin his own hand like he did the poor bastard's bellow him. Even with the scarf that's around the neck still, Rhys can feel things snapping and popping and he's not really sure what's in a neck but he doesn't really want to find out either. A second later and his hands feel weirdly warm and wet and he looks down closer and realizes that there's blood all over his hands. The realization sends a rush through his whole body and the bandit has stopped struggling at this point. Really, at this point it's overkill.  
  
Rhys' prosthetic is crushing the mans neck completely, to the point where Rhys feels like his hands was only holding a thick pipe or something of the sort and he recoils slightly, in shock that he caused this much damage, especially because he's not sure what happened exactly.  
  
Rhys stands up in a hurry, flexing his arm and realizing that most of the gunfire has stopped and he can't, see any more bandits on the side of the caravan. He turns on the safety to his arm again since he's deemed it safe enough and goes to grab his stun baton. The handle feels slippery and sticky with the blood coating his hands and he shivers. He peeks around the corner of the caravan to be met with the barrel of a gun and he yelps, fear turning to frustration when he sees its just Sasha.  
  
"Jeez, thanks Sasha," he says, looking around to realize there's no more bandits to be taken care of.  
  
"It's your fault for wandering off," she replies, looking smug and highly amused.  
  
"Whatever. I just had a rough experience so if you'll excuse me..." Rhys storms off into the caravan before anyone can protest, pocketing the baton and wiping it some of the now drying blood on his pants.  
  
It hits Rhys that since he actually started wailing at the bandit outside, Jack hasn't said a thing. He's not even in the caravan, and Rhys briefly wonders if he went back into his head before deciding it really doesn't matter right now. Fiona, Sasha, and Athena walk in a second later, giving the all clear for Vaughn and Gortys. They get up, asking what the hell happened and Rhys doesn't miss the weird looks he sends at Rhys' still very blood stained hands. Rhys gives him a look that says later and Vaughn just nods. Vaughn volunteers himself to change the tires outside because hey how hard can it be, and Rhys is pretty sure it's also because Vaughn didn't really do anything fighting in this fight.  
  
Vaughn walks out with Fiona, and in the meantime Sasha goes around the fallen bandits to see if any of them had money or weapons worth taking while Rhys used his eye to scan Loader Bot for damage, sighing in relieve when he saw it was minimal. 

\----

A few hours later and they're on the road again, most dozing off except for Fiona since she was driving. Rhys slowly wakes up to the feeling of someone watching him and almost screams when he sees blue from the corner of his eye. He still jumps up, and the noise is enough to get a worried glance from Fiona. Rhys just shakes his head and gestured that he's going to go to the roof, sending a glare at Jack before ascending.  
  
Rhys didn't realize in the caravan but the sun was starting to set, making the scenery around them look slightly less crappy and brown than normal. He sits on the roof, saying hi to Loader Bot and Gortys, who went back to their conversation once they realized he wasn't there to butt in.  
  
Rhys almost starts to doze off again until he feels the sensation of being watched again and opens his eyes, groaning. He sits up and turns his head to side, glaring at the man sitting near him.  
  
Jack is watching him carefully, looking more curious than hostile and Rhys isn't sure what's going on but he's fairly confident that Jack won't try to kill him or anything so he's not extremely worried. Just a normal amount.  
  
"Sooooooo Rhysie, baby," Jack starts, and his voice doesn't have the manic edge it normally does and it puts Rhys on the defensive. "You're pretty calm, especially since four hours ago you killed someone for the first time."  
  
Rhys isn't sure what to say, so he just stares, mounting opening and closing because he's not really sure what happened and he doesn't want to think about what he felt.  
  
"Are you broken kiddo? Because we made a deal and I can't really have you crapping out on me just because you strangled someone to death. I gotta admit though, literally crushing his throat, that was a surprise." Jack is still staring, though now there's a smirk on his face that makes Rhys calm down just enough to answer.  
  
"I don't... Know." It's a shitty answer.  
  
Jack rolls his eyes, crossing his arms and leaning back, reclining on what Rhys can only imagine is an invisible lawn chair. "Look kid, it was self defense, so stop beating yourself up over something so stupid."  
  
Rhys shakes his head, sitting up with his legs crossed and burying his face in his hands. "That's not it," he says, voice muffled into the palms of his hands.  
  
"Then spill the beans like you spilled that assholes blood, I don't got all night." A pause. "Well, I mean technically I do but-"  
  
"Alright, I get it," Rhys snaps, loud enough to make the two robots near him pause in their conversation as they try to ignore his one sided one. They go back to talking fairly quickly, slightly worried for the human. "I, it bothers me because it didn't bother me."  
  
Jack squints, definitely not expecting that but hey, whatever. "Uh, want to run that by me again cupcake?"  
  
Rhys takes a deep breath, letting it out slowly. "Okay, uh, it didn't bother me. Killing him. I'm not sure if it's because I've caused people to die already but," he stops again and tries to think about it. "I thought it would be a lot harder but it wasn't and then there was blood everywhere and I felt this weird rush and-"  
  
"Hold up," Jack interrupts, holding up a hand and looking much more interested than he did a minute ago. "That little display back there when the bandit squirted all over you was a rush? Of what exactly?"  
  
Rhys makes a face at Jack's wording, glaring at him. "I don't know! Like, when you get scared on a fast ride or something. It felt weird."  
  
Jack's grinning at this point, eyes excited and Rhys feels really uncomfortable with his expression and this line of questioning.  
  
"Sounds like you had a good time choking the life out of that guy sweetheart," he says, actually sitting up and leaning towards Rhys at this point, who in turn was leaning back.  
  
"No way, I did not like crushing some guy's neck," he says, looking away from Jack and towards his own hands. Which were covered in blood earlier. Not helping.  
  
He looks up again and Jack is less than a foot from him, looking entirely too pleased with himself. "C'mon Rhysie, we both know you're lying right now."  
  
"I'm not."  
  
"Kid, really, lying to me about this isn't gonna work for you. You said it yourself, you got a rush from strangling him. Not even that, killing him! Talk about fucked up." Jack moves slightly closer as he spoke, watching Rhys' expression closely.  
  
"I don't... I didn't," Rhys struggles out, groaning and burying his face in his hands again.  
  
Jack laughs at Rhys' internal struggle, honestly amused at how much Rhys can't bring himself to say he liked killing the bandit. "Nothing's wrong with liking the feeling killing someone Rhysie. It's such a rush and such a power trip, almost nothing better."  
  
Rhys blushes because now that Jack said it out loud, he can't deny that he felt a rush of power when the blood spilled over his hands. And it was amazing. His eyebrows come down together and he looks at Jack. "I, it's still wrong."  
  
Jack snorts at the weak argument, putting a hand down on either side of Rhys and getting right in his face. "No kitten, it isn't. Because that guy? He was a bandit. And you're with me, and what am I?"  
  
Rhys just stares with wide eyes, brain entirely frozen as he listens to what Jack says.  
  
Jack continues without hesitation, staring directly at Rhys, voice lowering. "I'm the god damn hero, and so that makes you the hero right now. And there's nothing wrong with being the hero."


End file.
